I bought a used TiVO Series3 HD a few months ago with a lifetime subscription. When I looked up transferring lifetime subscriptions, I found out that lifetime subscriptions were tied to the box and cannot be transferred. The seller had another TiVO box and didn't transfer the subscription to my name, claiming that he wanted to keep the multi-unit discount. On Friday, my TiVO stopped working and customer service said "Account Closed".

The TiVO Account Setup said "Lifetime Subscription", but when I called Customer Service, they said the unit never had "Lifetime", it was monthly and that was just terminated. So I just got stiffed a few months after paying for a "Lifetime" box. Is it that easy to transfer a "Lifetime subscription" from one box to another? So much for it being tied to the box.

I'm going to try to call TiVO customer service again. I've got photos of the TiVO setup saying "Lifetime" and emails from the seller saying it was lifetime. Meanwhile, I activated this TiVO on my old TiVO account. Any suggestions?

I bought a used TiVO Series3 HD a few months ago with a lifetime subscription. When I looked up transferring lifetime subscriptions, I found out that lifetime subscriptions were tied to the box and cannot be transferred. The seller had another TiVO box and didn't transfer the subscription to my name, claiming that he wanted to keep the multi-unit discount. On Friday, my TiVO stopped working and customer service said "Account Closed".

The TiVO Account Setup said "Lifetime Subscription", but when I called Customer Service, they said the unit never had "Lifetime", it was monthly and that was just terminated. So I just got stiffed a few months after paying for a "Lifetime" box. Is it that easy to transfer a "Lifetime subscription" from one box to another? So much for it being tied to the box.

I'm going to try to call TiVO customer service again. I've got photos of the TiVO setup saying "Lifetime" and emails from the seller saying it was lifetime. Meanwhile, I activated this TiVO on my old TiVO account. Any suggestions?

Was it from Ebay? If so how long ago. I would start with them or the seller. You may have some recourse if paid by credit card via the credit card company.

It must have been 1 of the special Lifetime's ThAbtO was talking about. This is the 2nd one of these in the last 2 months that I recall.

I guess the seller could have taken a pic of 1 of his Lifetimed units and just lied? Does the TSN in the pic match the TSN of the unit or was it blacked out?

I think you were ripped off. but the tivo should work with a new account.

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Originally Posted by DigitalB

I bought a used TiVO Series3 HD a few months ago with a lifetime subscription. When I looked up transferring lifetime subscriptions, I found out that lifetime subscriptions were tied to the box and cannot be transferred. The seller had another TiVO box and didn't transfer the subscription to my name, claiming that he wanted to keep the multi-unit discount. On Friday, my TiVO stopped working and customer service said "Account Closed".

The TiVO Account Setup said "Lifetime Subscription", but when I called Customer Service, they said the unit never had "Lifetime", it was monthly and that was just terminated. So I just got stiffed a few months after paying for a "Lifetime" box. Is it that easy to transfer a "Lifetime subscription" from one box to another? So much for it being tied to the box.

I'm going to try to call TiVO customer service again. I've got photos of the TiVO setup saying "Lifetime" and emails from the seller saying it was lifetime. Meanwhile, I activated this TiVO on my old TiVO account. Any suggestions?

I bought a used TiVO Series3 HD a few months ago with a lifetime subscription. When I looked up transferring lifetime subscriptions, I found out that lifetime subscriptions were tied to the box and cannot be transferred. The seller had another TiVO box and didn't transfer the subscription to my name, claiming that he wanted to keep the multi-unit discount. On Friday, my TiVO stopped working and customer service said "Account Closed".

The TiVO Account Setup said "Lifetime Subscription", but when I called Customer Service, they said the unit never had "Lifetime", it was monthly and that was just terminated. So I just got stiffed a few months after paying for a "Lifetime" box. Is it that easy to transfer a "Lifetime subscription" from one box to another? So much for it being tied to the box.

I'm going to try to call TiVO customer service again. I've got photos of the TiVO setup saying "Lifetime" and emails from the seller saying it was lifetime. Meanwhile, I activated this TiVO on my old TiVO account. Any suggestions?

Anybody purchasing a Lifetime TiVo MUST get that Lifetime Service xfered to their own TiVo account quickly, first set up your TiVo using your ZIP than call TiVo and have the unit xfered to your account, you must do this within the time period (less than 60 days normally) that you will have recourse with your credit card , E-Bay or PayPal, if you paid cash you may be out of luck. No TiVo lifetime sale is complete until the TiVo is in your own TiVo account (new or existing). Example: a seller could sell you a Lifetime TiVo, than after you think you got what you paid for the seller can do a advanced replacement with TiVo, TiVo itself will xfer the lifetime Service to the replacement TiVo as long as that TiVo is still in the sellers TiVo account.

This happened to me. The seller gave me a refund but I was out the shipping both ways. The seller swore it had lifetime service when he checked it. For me it had lifetime until I had it do the first "Conenct to Tivo." thus my caution to cross you fingers and see if it survives the check in.

I think it is a case where the original owner got in on one of the one time upgrade deals where the lifetime on the old unit is good afterwards for one year or the next call to TiVo, or maybe there was a replacement unit sent and somebody replaced the fialed hard drive.

Still, there are so many supposed lifetime Tivos on eBay I was wondering if there was hack in the wild to make the Tivo display lifetime long enough to be sold, or maybe the scammers are using photoshop.

This happened to me. The seller gave me a refund but I was out the shipping both ways. The seller swore it had lifetime service when he checked it. For me it had lifetime until I had it do the first "Conenct to Tivo." thus my caution to cross you fingers and see if it survives the check in.

I think it is a case where the original owner got in on one of the one time upgrade deals where the lifetime on the old unit is good afterwards for one year or the next call to TiVo, or maybe there was a replacement unit sent and somebody replaced the fialed hard drive.

Still, there are so many supposed lifetime Tivos on eBay I was wondering if there was hack in the wild to make the Tivo display lifetime long enough to be sold, or maybe the scammers are using photoshop.

If the seller has good feedback most E-Bay sales of lifetime TiVos work fine, most Lifetime E-Bay sales also don't show the SI screen because it has no real meaning, if the seller said the TiVo has lifetime Service why does the picture matter, buy the TiVo and do what I said in my post #6 and all will be OK. Some real small % of E-Bay Lifetime Sales may be NG but one can get your money back. Some sellers of a single TiVo (they picked up at say a flee mkt etc) may boot up the TiVo and see Lifetime on the SI screen and think that the TiVo does have Lifetime Service, if the seller is not a normal E-Bay TiVo seller, before paying, get the TSN and call TiVo, they will tell you if the TiVo has Lifetime Service at the time you call.

IIRC, there were a couple of cases where the sellers had a ''promotional'' Lifetime Service Tivo, that TiVo would not transfer to the new owner.
Sounds like the case here.

Yes, I had an e-mail about a lifetime transfer, from my S1 to THD, for $199 (price for 1 yr sub) on THD, and then they said it would take 2 months to switch the subs (they did). Then after that, I called back and had them take the remaining months and transferred to my S2 (which is now lifetime).

I bought the TiVO Series3 HD from Craigslist, so no eBay recourse. The TiVO serial number matches the Lifetime subscription, which is the unit I have. When I bought it, he showed me his account and the TiVO account info and everything matched. I asked to transfer the unit to me and he said he would. Then later, he said he wanted to keep it to keep the multi-unit discount. Since I sold my other TiVO and was going to test out the HD again, I said ok, but I'd want to transfer it later when I got my second TiVO.

Now a few months have passed and on Friday, I got the dreaded "Account Closed" message. When I called Customer Service, they said the unit shows it was on monthly and it was never on Lifetime. I'm quite baffled as to how I could have seen the unit number on Lifetime and then now it changed (to the guys other unit). I had called TiVO before the purchase and they said that Lifetime was per unit and it could be transferred to a new owner, but not to another unit. So I thought I'd be safe from getting ripped off.

As expected, the other guy is not returning my messages. I'm going to send TiVO a photo of the screen showing the Account with this unit and Lifetime and press harder. Does anyone have their customer service email address?

Call TiVo (see post above) and ask to talk to supervisor. They can trace the "history" of the services that unit had and if it ever had the Lifetime Service, they can tell you what happened to it.

Do not activate the unit on your account yet. It will make things more difficult (cancel your current service, restore existing, etc..). Keep your unit unactivated and call TiVo support, they'll help you.

Call TiVo (see post above) and ask to talk to supervisor. They can trace the "history" of the services that unit had and if it ever had the Lifetime Service, they can tell you what happened to it.

I wouldn't count on that. TiVo could claim to be violating the previous owner's privacy if they reveal the history of the unit.

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Do not activate the unit on your account yet. It will make things more difficult (cancel your current service, restore existing, etc..). Keep your unit unactivated and call TiVo support, they'll help you.

I agree with this. Settle the dispute first.

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